Manchester United star reveals Van Gaal is training team to become faster footballers

Former Manchester United defender Jonny Evans has revealed Louis van Gaal is trying to turn the side into a faster team.

Evans says the team are all undergoing conditioning work during gym sessions aimed at boosting their pace.

He told ManUtd.com: "We're always in the gym and are doing a lot of power work and explosive work. We're concentrating on that really and trying to get that speed element of our game.

"After every session we see how many kilometres we have run, how much height, speed and distance and I think it's good to know how far you've pushed yourself and how strenuous it has been."

Looking at Louis van Gaal's previous teams he has managed it's little wonder to see him place so much importance on pace.

Going back to his Ajax side, Marc Overmars was a rapid winger who tore defences apart, while at Bayern Munich and for Holland he had Arjen Robben.

At United he has managed to sign Angel di Maria, whose change of pace and trickery has already proven to bamboozle Premier League defenders, particularly in the win away at Arsenal.

Pace is a natural attribute which some players are not blessed with, but with the right conditioning, athletes can become leaner and faster. Don't expect a team of Usain Bolt's, but Van Gaal is clearly determined his team be no slouches either.

Dan Coombs

Dan Coombs has been writing for HITC Sport full time since 2012 and has helped the website grow it's audience considerably during this period, while managing a team of writers. He has interviewed high profile names including Stuart Pearce and his work has been cited in Javier Hernandez's biography. In addition to football, Dan is a big fan of the NFL and NBA.